Role-Play terms

This is a list of terms you will frequently see in regards to role-play.

- RP: Short for role-play

- RPer: Someone who role-plays

- IC: In character

- OOC: Out of character; an RPer will usually put this before a short statement before an IC post when they wish to have the participants know something.

- Bio: Character biography

- God-modding: Controlling someone else's character without their permission. This is looked down upon and is against the rules.

- Power-playing: The act of giving one’s character god-like abilities. Power players usually create a perfect, unrealistic being that has no flaws and physically attractive.

- Abilities: A character’s given power and/or talent. Not to be confused with power-playing. Abilities can include anything from a talent in art, adeptness in computers, control over an element, or ability to cast magic.

- AU: Alternate universe

- Canon: This pertains to fanfiction. It is when a character, event, place, etc., are also in the original source, such as a book, TV show, or movie. Ex., Ron and Hermione are a canon couple at the end of the Harry Potter series. Hogwarts is a canon school and place in the Harry Potter series. Sam and Dean Winchester are brothers, but their sexual/romantic relationship portrayed in some fanfics is NOT canon.

- Face claim: The real life model used to portay the appearance of your character.

- FC: Short for face claim

- Fade to black: Often used within sexual scenes where the players end/skip a scene, though the actions are thought to be played out despite not being typed, and the scene picks back up after the skipped scene would have ended. This is allowed as long as the scene remains PG13.

- Fan character: An original character in a canon world.

- Fluff: Unnecessary details

- Headcanon: Something that the individual or fandom believes to be true in the story, show, etc. and it generally makes sense, but hasn’t been confirmed by the creators of the media. More or less, a ‘personal’ canon.

- Mary Sue/Gary Stu — Used to describe a character that is often times ‘perfect’ in every way, is capable of upstaging other characters no matter what, they can pick up on any task and master it in no time, etc. Usually a perfected self-insert.

- Multi para: A post that is a minimum of 3 paragraphs. It can be much longer than this.

- Muse: In Greek mythology, these women are the inspirations for artists. They are invisible, and every person who dabbles in any kind of art has one of their own.

- NPC: Non-playable character(s). Usually side character and/or minor characters that are not vital to the storyline, but still needed to progress the storyline.

- OC: Original character; a character created from scratch and that does not belong to any universe already created by someone else.